Building blocks which are hollow have been disclosed previously. An example is described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,098 to Newsom. In the Newsom patent, molded containers for liquids are made in a shape which allows them to be assembled in a nested fashion to form a wall. It is contemplated that these containers be used to construct wall-forms after they have served as containers to transport fluids, and have been emptied. The Newsome containers are described throughout as being rigid and are not collapsible in any way.
A reference that has issued for a collapsible building element is U.S. Pat. No. 2,990,837 to Cushman. This document describes an air inflated wall structure that may be erected to form a large circular enclosure. Periodically placed internal panels, placed transversely within side walls, constrain the shape of the inflated structure to form the walls of the enclosure. A bottom tube is filled with water in order to provide ballast for the structure.
Other inflated structures are described in the following references:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,432,609 to Duvall PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,556,391 to Tardivel et al PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,236,261 to Wilbourn et al
None of these references, however, describe a stackable building block which may be inflated to form a stable structure. It is with the objective of providing such a product that this invention has been conceived.
The invention in its general form will first be described, and then its implementation in terms of specific embodiments will be detailed with reference to the drawings following hereafter. These embodiments are intended to demonstrate the principle of the invention, and the manner of its implementation. The invention in its broadest and more specific forms will then be further described, and defined, in each of the individual claims which conclude this Specification.